9791Egon
London, England
This review may contain spoilers
The fact I didn't like it shouldn't detract from the great story and acting...
... As per my headline, the ratings suggest that I should have given this an 8, but I didn't like this drama so I couldn't bring myself to do it. I would however draw your attention to why I might be biased or why my review might not be as objective as others.
I live in the UK and although I've watched a fair, few asian dramas, there are lots of societal and cultural norms synonymous with countries such as South Korea and China that I've just never been exposed to. The main subject of this drama is just one of those things I couldn't quite grasp as a big issue and I think, besides the story and the acting - it just meant that I was just at odds with the main subject matter.
The story is about a guy and a girl who fall in love, albeit they know they probably shouldn't because of their current situations. The girl is unhappy because she is unsuccessfully trying to break her 4 year relationship with a selfish and aggressive man (he is antagonist 1) after she realises that she's bored, doesn't love him and doesn't want to marry him. Admittedly, she realises this before she meets our male lead but ending the relationship becomes more urgent when she starts to interact with him.
Our male lead is a father of a young boy (probably 4 or 5). He is not with the boys mother anymore and he has custody of the child. He works hard to provide and care for his son and whilst he works, his parents are the primary care givers but he sees the boy on an almost daily basis. People, namely his male friends, gossip about the fact that he'll likely be single forever because no one would want to date a single father, unless she has something wrong with her - and it appears that this is common opinion, especially amongst the older generation.
This is the primary reason why, even if our female lead was single - it would not be deemed acceptable for her to date our male lead. Why this is discussed excessively is a big part of why I don't like the drama... Because I think it's a non-issue, but I recognise that korean cultural and societal measures are different, especially when you factor in what the older generation expects of the younger.
What further bothered me though is that to some extent, the actions and behaviour of our 3 main antagonists (and you could argue there were more than 3) were deemed to be acceptable and expected.
And this is where, I have to hand it to the actors because they played their parts beautifully and never have I felt such ire against our villains as I have here. I'm not sure if I would have hated them more or less if they were not all male but I guess we'll never know. Regardless, I couldn't fault the story line nor the acting in this regard as I think the script was well paced, the dialogue and especially the conveying of emotions in what was a very 'heavy' production, was on point. But back to the issues I had...
Antagonist 1 was the ex-boyfriend. The girl was honest and clear with him as to why she didn't want to pursue their relationship (even before she met someone else), but he wouldn't accept it and he plotted to simultaneously maintain a relationship with her as well as disgracing her for trying to enter a relationship with a single father. He was selfish and became aggressive... But was a loathsome individual.
Antagonist 2 was our female leads' brother-in-law. He was a devious, gold-digger who was hanging on to the coat tails of his beautiful and famous wife; spending her money and beating her black and blue when she attempted to stand up to him. When she tried to divorce him, he refused and continued to manipulate deeds to their properties and their finances to ensure he could continue to profit from their relationship even though she was doing everything possible to distance herself from him and his abuse. This got worse when she found she was pregnant with his child.
Antagonist 3 was our female leads' father and I think he was the worst of the 3. This man had 3 daughters. His eldest, a successful broadcaster, married to antagonist 2. His middle child was our female lead and his youngest was a headstrong student who loved her sisters dearly, but didn't like being told what to do. She had spent time abroad to essentially get away from her parents. His wife was loyal and loving, with her own hobbies and he was a high school administrator, nearing the latter years of his career and looking forward to a prominent position within the school system that would see him working less up until his retirement. The problem was that he wouldn't accept that his eldest daughter wanted to end her marriage even though he knew she was being beaten by her husband because he couldn't stand the disgrace of having a divorced daughter. (Genuinely, if my father even thought my husband was laying a hand on me, my other half would be dead by now). He tried to arrange the marriage of his second daughter to a man (the ex-boyfriend) he knew she didn't love and wanted to leave because, the ex-boyfriend was the son of his employer whom he didn't want to annoy, fearing his new job would be compromised. He tried to dictate what the youngest would do with her life (even though she was an adult) and she often went month's without speaking to him and finally, he berated and spoke down to his wife regarding her life choices, her relationship with their daughters and her hobbies. I'm glad to say that towards the end of the series, his wife had moved out of the family home and was considering her next steps but this man was the epitome of despicable.
I was sad that the things these 3 men did could even be brought up in a drama produced within the last 5 years, let alone the fact that our female lead had to tolerate being associated and affected by any of them.. And that's the reason, I didn't like this drama.
But as mentioned above, it was a fine story, script and production in general and the fact it affected me as much as to incite me to write a review, says it was certainly good enough to leave an impression on me... But I wouldn't watch it again just because of the uneasy feeling it left with me. I would still recommend that it should be watched, if nothing else to see what the director and the actors are capable of as that element cannot be praised enough.
I live in the UK and although I've watched a fair, few asian dramas, there are lots of societal and cultural norms synonymous with countries such as South Korea and China that I've just never been exposed to. The main subject of this drama is just one of those things I couldn't quite grasp as a big issue and I think, besides the story and the acting - it just meant that I was just at odds with the main subject matter.
The story is about a guy and a girl who fall in love, albeit they know they probably shouldn't because of their current situations. The girl is unhappy because she is unsuccessfully trying to break her 4 year relationship with a selfish and aggressive man (he is antagonist 1) after she realises that she's bored, doesn't love him and doesn't want to marry him. Admittedly, she realises this before she meets our male lead but ending the relationship becomes more urgent when she starts to interact with him.
Our male lead is a father of a young boy (probably 4 or 5). He is not with the boys mother anymore and he has custody of the child. He works hard to provide and care for his son and whilst he works, his parents are the primary care givers but he sees the boy on an almost daily basis. People, namely his male friends, gossip about the fact that he'll likely be single forever because no one would want to date a single father, unless she has something wrong with her - and it appears that this is common opinion, especially amongst the older generation.
This is the primary reason why, even if our female lead was single - it would not be deemed acceptable for her to date our male lead. Why this is discussed excessively is a big part of why I don't like the drama... Because I think it's a non-issue, but I recognise that korean cultural and societal measures are different, especially when you factor in what the older generation expects of the younger.
What further bothered me though is that to some extent, the actions and behaviour of our 3 main antagonists (and you could argue there were more than 3) were deemed to be acceptable and expected.
And this is where, I have to hand it to the actors because they played their parts beautifully and never have I felt such ire against our villains as I have here. I'm not sure if I would have hated them more or less if they were not all male but I guess we'll never know. Regardless, I couldn't fault the story line nor the acting in this regard as I think the script was well paced, the dialogue and especially the conveying of emotions in what was a very 'heavy' production, was on point. But back to the issues I had...
Antagonist 1 was the ex-boyfriend. The girl was honest and clear with him as to why she didn't want to pursue their relationship (even before she met someone else), but he wouldn't accept it and he plotted to simultaneously maintain a relationship with her as well as disgracing her for trying to enter a relationship with a single father. He was selfish and became aggressive... But was a loathsome individual.
Antagonist 2 was our female leads' brother-in-law. He was a devious, gold-digger who was hanging on to the coat tails of his beautiful and famous wife; spending her money and beating her black and blue when she attempted to stand up to him. When she tried to divorce him, he refused and continued to manipulate deeds to their properties and their finances to ensure he could continue to profit from their relationship even though she was doing everything possible to distance herself from him and his abuse. This got worse when she found she was pregnant with his child.
Antagonist 3 was our female leads' father and I think he was the worst of the 3. This man had 3 daughters. His eldest, a successful broadcaster, married to antagonist 2. His middle child was our female lead and his youngest was a headstrong student who loved her sisters dearly, but didn't like being told what to do. She had spent time abroad to essentially get away from her parents. His wife was loyal and loving, with her own hobbies and he was a high school administrator, nearing the latter years of his career and looking forward to a prominent position within the school system that would see him working less up until his retirement. The problem was that he wouldn't accept that his eldest daughter wanted to end her marriage even though he knew she was being beaten by her husband because he couldn't stand the disgrace of having a divorced daughter. (Genuinely, if my father even thought my husband was laying a hand on me, my other half would be dead by now). He tried to arrange the marriage of his second daughter to a man (the ex-boyfriend) he knew she didn't love and wanted to leave because, the ex-boyfriend was the son of his employer whom he didn't want to annoy, fearing his new job would be compromised. He tried to dictate what the youngest would do with her life (even though she was an adult) and she often went month's without speaking to him and finally, he berated and spoke down to his wife regarding her life choices, her relationship with their daughters and her hobbies. I'm glad to say that towards the end of the series, his wife had moved out of the family home and was considering her next steps but this man was the epitome of despicable.
I was sad that the things these 3 men did could even be brought up in a drama produced within the last 5 years, let alone the fact that our female lead had to tolerate being associated and affected by any of them.. And that's the reason, I didn't like this drama.
But as mentioned above, it was a fine story, script and production in general and the fact it affected me as much as to incite me to write a review, says it was certainly good enough to leave an impression on me... But I wouldn't watch it again just because of the uneasy feeling it left with me. I would still recommend that it should be watched, if nothing else to see what the director and the actors are capable of as that element cannot be praised enough.
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